Patlabor: NYPD
by Newtype Alpha
Summary: This is the story of the first Patlabor team in the big apple, operating under the watchful eye of international supercop, Kanuka Clancy.-- this is a "what if?" fic that converts today's current events with the world of Patlabor.
1. Chapter 1: Officer Down

Patlabor: NYPD  
  
Chapter 1: Officer Down  
  
--August 27, 2001--  
  
"This is you final warning! We have you surrounded! Deactivate your Labor and come out with your hands up!" Sgt. Aaron Black shouted into the bullhorn. Still, there was no reply from the labor or it's two occupants.  
  
Officer Ben Dixon waited in the cockpit of his Type-0 Peacemaker, ready to draw his gun at the first sign of trouble. The Labor was one of Mitsubishi's brand new "all terrain labors", a concept design that had become as popular with American industry as the SUV was to the motorist. Fast and agile, these new four-legged/two armed labors were very similar to the Crab-man as far as speed and mobility, had the specs to take down just about any other labor. But specs can be deceiving. The ATL was heavy for it's size, and extremely clumsy on loose soil. For this reason, the ATL was now the Labor that the Special Vehicles teams encountered the most. This particular labor had climbed to the top of a parking garage and had begun throwing cars over the roof when the police arrived. Since it was during peak business hours, there were plenty of cars left for him to lob at the SV1.  
  
Ben had a shot, but he had been given strict orders not to fire lest he do damage to the parking structure. "Hey chief, do we know what this guy's beef is yet?"  
  
"Not yet. All we do know is that he used to work in that hotel across the street. The manager there thinks he's probably disgruntled about something..." Kanuka looked at the computer screen in her patrol car again. "He's one of the chefs at the café in the lobby, but the labor belongs to a guy named Hapsburg who works for the Bright Manhattan Construction Company. He 's been using that Labor for 6 months, and he's got pretty good credit. No criminal record thus far, so chances are that the labor's been stolen." For just a moment, the labor disappeared from view, then reappeared as yet another car became airborne. "Incoming!" Kanuka shouted, throwing her own car into reverse and flooring it.  
  
Ben moved over behind large bank and sought cover. Rico and Huck's labors moved in next to him just as the flying Buick came crashing down on the street next to them. Ben peaked around the corner and surveyed the damage, but flinched as another car whizzed past his labor's head. "Shit! What the hell was that?"  
  
Aaron watched the second car smash into one of the swat team's vans. "Looks like an Outback." He said, sighing heavily. "Ben, he's starting to throw bigger cars. At this rate, you're gonna have to take him out."  
  
"If you say so..." Ben drew his gun and stepped around the corner. The Labor was dead in his sights. "Got him lined up!"  
  
Sgt. Black watched him aim from his command car. He had a clear line of sight, no civilians in his path. "Officer Dixon, you're cleared to..."  
  
"Hold your fire!" Someone shouted on the radio. "The hotel just called in! The guy's calling with terrorist demands on his cell phone!"  
  
At length, Ben realized that the voice belonged to Alex Henderson, Huck's backup. "What does he want?"  
  
"...oh, just the usual. He wants a helicopter... two hundred grand... safe passage out of the country.. and the kosher meal on his plane ticket."  
  
"And if we don't give him what he wants?"  
  
"Obviously, he'll throw more cars." Alex didn't seem particularly interested in the situation. In fact, he sounded bored.  
  
Kanuka felt the same way. "Any bomb threats or hostages?"  
  
"He didn't mention any, but he's not the most coherent guy in the world." Alex said.  
  
Another car sailed over the roof. This one fell short of the police officers and vehicles camped around the building, but it was enough to irritate Kanuka to the point of action. "That does it! Ben, you can go ahead and shoot the bastard."  
  
"Roger." Ben checked his shot and fired three shells. The first one missed by a meter or two, but the second one struck just bellow the cockpit, blowing off the labor's leg from it's hip socket. The huge labor collapsed to the ground, off balance on only three legs. "I dropped him. Call the swat team before the pilot gets away!"  
  
There was a long pause, and then Kanuka sighed. "That last Outback clobbered them. Right now, it looks like..."  
  
"I know, I know. It's up to us. C'mon guys! Lets go make an arrest!"  
  
"Right behind you Dix." Rico's Peacemaker followed Bens around the corner and toward the parking garage. Huck stayed back, training his revolver at the stairwell that ran from ground level to the top floor.  
  
Ben started to climb, level by level, to the roof of the garage structure. As he approached the top floor, he heard something on the other side of the building. He looked between levels and saw another labor climbing up the side of the garage. "There's another labor up here!" He shouted. "Eyeball, what're you lookin at?! Where'd that other labor come from?!"  
  
As Ben delayed is accent, Rico climbed to the top of the building first. The patrol chopper came through the static. "Other labor? What other labor? I don't see anything!" Ben heard a gunshot, and then looked up to see Rico's Peacemaker performing a swan dive off the top of the building. "...oh, THAT other labor!" the chopper pilot said nervously. "It looks like it's collecting those two nimrods from the first ATL... he's moving again!"  
  
Ben quickly scaled the building to get to the roof, but another powerful shot rang out. The shell wizzed past his cockpit, and Ben realized that someone on the roof was firing off an anti-tank weapon of some kind. Not wasting time, he sprinted to the edge of the roof and jumped off, landing squarely on the back of the fleeting ATL. The huge labor tried to shake him by twisting it's upper torso back and forth, swinging it's arms impotently in every which way. Ben held on, and tried to draw his stun baton. When he released one hand to grab his weapon, the labor bucked suddenly and freed itself form his grasp, taking off down the road as fast as it's wheels could take it. Ben recovered quickly and fired the last three shells from his revolver, puncturing both of the tires on the labor's left legs. Gimped by this setback, the ATL retracted it's wheels and began galloping along on foot. Ben punched his throttles and pursued. "All units, all units, this is PTL101! Suspect labor now headed southbound on 15th avenue! I'm in pursuit!"  
  
Ben ran off down the street as fast as the labor could move. The ATL galloped down the street like a horse, but it slipped several times when it's legs came crashing down on top of cars and other un-secured objects. The chase went on for more than half an hour, but tracked by police choppers there wasn't an place the labor could go where it could not be seen. But there were plenty of things is could do if it got enough distance from Ben's Peacemaker.  
  
After what seemed like forever, the ATL came to a halt on the George Washington Bridge. Another Patlabor was marching toward it from the other side, brandishing a loaded riot gun. "We got him sandwiched, Ben!" It was Huck's voice, but Huck had never used a riot gun before.  
  
"Where did you get that thing?" Ben said, drawing a spare cylinder from his right compartment and reloading his gun.  
  
"Section 4 had it. They loaned it to me when I jumped over the road block."  
  
Ben sighed. Coming from Huck, the words 'they loaned it to me' usually meant that he had stolen it. "Attention labor pilot! You are under arrest for labor theft and public endangerment! Throw down your weapons and get out of there, or I WILL blow you away!"  
  
Behind him, on the roadblock, Kanuka rolled her eyes. "Just like Ohta..." she said disgusted. "Jesus Christ! There's one in EVERY city!"  
  
In response, The machine bent it's knees a bit and two people emerged from the cockpit hatch in the top of the machine. There appeared a man in a ski mask, holding a pistol to the head of a young woman easily half his size. "Back away cop!" He shouted. "I'll kill this bitch, I swear! Just back away!"  
  
Ben didn't back down. The gunman was in a position where anything he could do other than give up would get him killed. Even if he killed the hostage, he had to know he would be next. "This is your last chance! Throw down your weapons and surrender! Don't make me kill you!"  
  
Abruptly, the man lifted his hostage out of the labor and threw her over the side of the hatch. His confidence apparently growing, he started up his motors and charged Ben's Peacemaker as fast as it's legs could move it. "FREEDOM!" He shouted over the loudspeaker.  
  
Ben had had enough. He aimed his gun at the hip joints and fired twice. Both shells ripped cleanly through the labor, which collapsed to the ground, utterly useless. Thinking quickly, Ben opened his cockpit and climbed down the wince line, shotgun in hand, to the street below. He charged up to the ATL and pulled the cockpit open, pointing the shotgun into the cockpit. "Hands up asshole!" He shouted. The masked pilot inside was only too happy to oblige.  
  
Huck ran up only moments later with his sidearm drawn. "Kanuka's sending a pickup." He said.  
  
"Alright." Ben lowered himself into the cockpit and cuffed the pilot's wrists together before pulling off his ski mask. "Common lone ranger! You're goin for a nice long ride!"  
  
"Up yours, cop! You're goin' down just like the rest of the assorted trash on the Earth! Just you wait! One more week and the world as you know it will come to an end!"  
  
Ben rolled his eyes and dragged the man out of the cockpit, but he heard a single gunshot behind him. He dropped the pilot and pulled up his shotgun, but found himself staring down the pilot's hostage, a loaded .44 Magnum in her hands. "You don't belong in the new world order!" she said angrily. "You're time is come and gone!" She was almost 5 meters away from him, but that was still too close. "Drop the shotgun." She said.  
  
At first, Ben was reluctant, but then he felt a second gun pressing against the back of his head. He heard footsteps behind him, and he could tell that there were at least 3 more people on the bridge. "Do him." One of the men said.  
  
Ben dropped the shotgun, but the approaching sound of police sirens caught his attention. The pilot behind him broke and ran toward his Peacemaker, but the woman with the gun didn't budge. "You are an obsolete, fascist dinosaur! I retire you!" And with those words, the woman pulled the trigger and the gun fired. Ben hit the ground like a rag doll, next to the body of officer Ryan "Huck" McKinley. Meanwhile the two labor criminals climbed into his Peacemaker and sprinted across the bridge at the labor's top speed. Meanwhile, the woman who had fired the fatal shot tossed dashed around behind the disabled labor, waiting in the shadows behind it until she saw her chance.  
  
After a few seconds, three patrol cars roared to the scene, and six police officers jumped from their cars to secure the area. The woman with the magnum jumped from concealment and aimed her weapon, but a single shot from one of the police officers punched through her ribcage on the left side. She keeled over in pain, and two officers swooped in to arrest her.  
  
Swerving around the stopped patrol cars, Kanuka screeched to a halt next to the dead labor and ran out of the car to check her men. Huck was dead; the back of his skull had been blown off by the bullet but the contents of his head were nowhere to be found. Ben was in better shape, as the bullet seemed to have hit his skull at and odd angle and been deflected off somewhere. She dropped to her knees next to him cradled his head in her arms, trying her best to keep him from falling asleep. "Chief Clancy..." he said quietly.  
  
"You're hurt real bad, Ben. Don't move and don't speak." Kanuka examined the wound on his head. blood flowed in a small stream from the spot, and a steady trickle was running onto her legs.  
  
Rico moved up next to them, and pulled out his radio. "This is PTL 102 on the George Washington bridge, I've got two officers down and we need an ambulance immediately!" Rico took off his shirt and Kanuka helped him tear it into strips. Both of them started wrapping the strips of fabric around his head in a vain effort to stop the bleeding. "Ben, can you here me?"  
  
Ben's eyes lost focus, and he began to drift. "Ben?! Ben stay with me! BEN!" Kanuka was shouting at the top of her lungs. Still, he was slipping away.  
  
Rico heard a report on his radio. "This is PL-19, have sighted stolen Patlabor, eastbound on... holy shit!" There was a long pause from the helicopter pilot, but Rico could tell what we was looking at. Barely a block away, just below the skyline, a fireball was rising into the sky. "...oh Jesus. I don't know what the hell's going on here...I... oh man! I need a vacation..."  
  
Rico turned down his radio, and looked at Kanuka. "We can't wait for the damn ambulance. Help me get him into the car!" He started to lift Ben's legs. Kanuka took him by the shoulders and the two of them lifted Ben into the back of the patrol car. Kanuka crouched in the back seat and kept trying to stop the bleeding while Rico started the car and sped them off to the nearest hospital. "Hang on Ben! You'll be okay!"  
  
"Chief.." He mumbled. "Kanuka... they... they took my..." At this point, he passed out on the seat. It was out of her hands now. If Ben was going to live, it would be HIS choice and no one else's. 


	2. Chapter 2: Sergeant Snowball

Chapter 2: Sergeant Snowball  
  
--September 5, 2001--  
  
Ben disliked hospitals as much as the next man, but he actually didn't mind them as long as he was actually a patient. The cute nurses that waited on him hand and foot each day had all started to look alike to him: HOT. Anyone could tell you that this type of stimuli was a major factor in his recovery, even after the operation to repair his cracked skull. The morning of September 5th, Kanuka and Aaron came to visit him on the day before he was scheduled to be released, and he had every intention of enjoying the scenery while he had the chance. When they arrived in his room, they saw the nurse bending over to pick up a glass he had dropped from his bed for the umpteenth time on the carpet. To extend his viewing period, he usually said something distracting like "How'd you get that stain on your socks?" or "Not that glass, the other glass." But with Kanuka and Aaron in the room, he decided to cut his peep show short for the day. "How you been, Dix?" Aaron said, handing him a labor magazine.  
  
"Same old. Headaches have stopped but I've still got a sore spot on my head where the bitch shot me." The pretty nurse put the glass down on the table next to him and left them alone. "What'd you find out?" He asked, lowering his voice.  
  
"She's a militia chick by the name of Hilda Clancy." Kanuka said. Ben and Aaron gave her a strange look, but Kanuka sighed. "You two are idiots." She said.  
  
"Anyway, she's with the Legion of American Purity group based in Massachusetts. This is the first time any of them have tried to use a labor for one of their activities though."  
  
Ben laughed. "Throwing cars off the roof of a parking garage? What the hell kinda terrorism is that?"  
  
"Decoy terrorism. And there's more to come." Kanuka answered him, dry as ever. "A pair of Boxer construction labors attacked a federal research lab yesterday. Apparently something was stolen, but as usual the FBI won't give us the details."  
  
"Typical." Ben said, rolling his eyes.  
  
"Actually, they have a good reason not to tell us. Lately I'm finding that they often do."  
  
"Examples?" Ben said.  
  
Kanuka didn't even have to think about it. "Remember that car you stopped a month ago with the strange white substance in the trunk that you thought was heroin?"  
  
"Yeah. The feds confiscated it and didn't tell us why."  
  
"Turns out it wasn't heroin. As a matter of fact, it was a biological sample used for federal research."  
  
"Germ warfare again? That's just the Feds with skeletons in their closets..."  
  
"Wasn't germ warfare."  
  
"Then what was it?"  
  
"They used it for stem-cell research." Kanuka said, almost cracking a smile.  
  
Ben's throat tightened and his mouth became very dry. "Then that was...?!"  
  
Kanuka nodded slowly, smiling fully now.  
  
Ben and Aaron both fought a gagging reflex. "Oh GOD! And I touched that stuff too! Ick!"  
  
Aaron almost threw up. "You're the one who made me taste it! Damn, Ben! I think I'm gonna stay in here for awhile."  
  
Kanuka actually laughed. It was a rare occurrence for her, but this was poetic justice at it's best. "Now you see, this was something that you'd rather not know. The Feds told me because I never touched the stuff. And being a woman, they figured I'd be slightly less grossed out."  
  
Aaron took offense to Kanuka's disconnected cycncism. "Less grossed out? That's one way of putting it. I happen to know you can't get enough of… that stuff. Word is that you just love the taste of…"  
  
Kanuka shot him the evil eye, and Aaron suddenly realized he had gone to far. This meant trouble for him, and he knew it. "I'll deal with YOU later." She stepped up and leaned on the cabinet next to Ben's bed. "Look Ben, we managed to fix your labor but your movement pattern data got toasted. You're going to have to use the backup disk."  
  
"That old disk was created on an Ingram's OS. Will the Neuron Net be able to use it?"  
  
"No. You'll have to start your Neuron file all over again."  
  
Ben sighed. "Well, it's only been a few weeks. It's not like I'll be missing all that much."  
  
"That's right!" Aaron said. "Anyway, as long as nothing big goes down over the next few days, you'll be just fine!"  
  
Ben sighed. "Whenever the Feds get involved, you can bet that there's always SOMETHING big going on."  
  
There was a knock on the door, and Kanuka reached back and opened it. David "Snowball" Murphy entered, smiling from ear to ear. Dave was born in Nigeria, but he had done well to mask his accent. In fact, he was capable of speaking with almost any accent he desired in almost any language, a skill only too handy for a labor cop. Snowball, as he was called, was one of the darkest men Ben had ever known. The name fit peferfectly. "Hey Dix! I heard someone killed you, so I flew all the way from Chicago to piss on your grave."  
  
Ben smiled back, surprised to see his old friend had come all the way to New York. "Go home Snowball? Don't they have labor crimes in Chicago?"  
  
"Not as much. Our cops use Ingrams, so naturally the crime rate's plummeted."  
  
"Oh yeah, you're REALLY cleaning up the streets with those obsolete labors of yours. Why don't you guys upgrade or something?"  
  
"My Ingram works well enough. But the unit was only formed this July, so it's still too early to tell if our equipment needs to be replaced. Not that we can afford it or anything."  
  
Kanuka shrugged. "Ingrams work well enough with a good pilot. The Peacemakers are just more complicated."  
  
Ben sat up in his bed. "Anyway, why ARE you here Snowball?"  
  
"Rookies." He said plainly. "Our Chicago Labor Enforcement just put together a new section. I brought them here for some advanced training."  
  
"Why ARE you guys using Ingrams anyway? They're almost obsolete by now." Kanuka said.  
  
"It's simple really. We're getting these old models at less than half their original factory price. This way, we can build a larger unit and save some of the smaller communities around us from having to run their own Patlabor units. Quantity vs. quality."  
  
Kanuka grinned. "Don't discount the Ingrams based on specs. They still use them in Japan, and other units are starting up all over the world using Ingrams."  
  
Ben groaned. "My Peacemaker is still king. Ingrams may be popular, but they aint that good."  
  
"We'll find out soon enough. As soon as you're out of here, we're going to have a little showdown. My Ingrams against your Peacemakers. I can say with confidence that you will not win this fight."  
  
Ben was beaming at him. "Just like old times, eh Snowball?"  
  
"Just like old times. Or maybe better. I like my Ingram a lot better than the old Helldivers we used in Kosovo."  
  
"Me too. Anyway, you just go ahead and polish your scrap head of a labor and I'll be right out of here."  
  
"Sure thing." Ben said, leaving the room. "I'll be back to check on you later tonight. Don't die until I get back to see it."  
  
Ben laughed a bit, and then looked at Kanuka and Aaron. "I almost forgot to ask you, what happened to that woman? The one with the Magnum?"  
  
Kanuka had been hoping to avoid this subject, but she wasn't going to try and dodge it once Ben brought it up. "She's been released on bail. They had her transferred to another hospital in Queens."  
  
Ben felt like his heart might explode from his chest. "Bail?! She shot Huck in the face! What the hell kinda system is this?!"  
  
"The judge seems to think the evidence against her was circumstantial, since you were the only witness. Her lawyers convinced him that you had suffered some kind of trauma from the gunshot and that you didn't see what you think you saw."  
  
"That's a joke. She had the gun, the bullet from the gun killed Huck, but they want me to prove she pulled the trigger?"  
  
"Exactly." Kanuka reached into a paper bag she had brought with her and pulled out a small brown teddy bear. "Feel better, Dix. We'll be at the station if you need anything." She dropped the bear on his face and walked away.  
  
Ben read the tag on the little teddy bear and laughed. "Da' Bears!" He said, reading the inscription that had been signed by, of all people, Snowflake Kanuka and Aaron. 


End file.
